Nintendo has announced that the Nintendo DS console will ship in North America on November 21 for $149.99 and in Japan on December 2 for 15,000 yen ($136.50). Nintendo of Europe has stated that the release of the DS in PAL territories should take place in Q1 2005.

Nintendo of America has stated that a demo of Metroid Prime: First Hunt and the wireless chat program PictoChat will ship with the unit when it hits stores just in time for the Christmas rush. Nintendo has also announced that they plan to ship 4 million DS units globally before the end of the business year.

The handheld unit allows for backwards compatibility with only Game Boy Advance games (not Game Boy or Game Boy Color) and only in a single player mode. Now, to get into the technical aspects of the DS unit itself:

Bottom Screen: Same specs as top screen, but with a transparent analog touch screen

Wireless Communication: IEEE 802.11 and Nintendo's proprietary format; wireless range is 30 to 100 feet, depending on circumstances; multiple users can play multiplayer games using just one DS Game Card